A rant about Street Fighter II and joysticks and memories

The original Fighting Street machine was the first fighting game cabinet I ever learned to play at the Landmark arcade in Peoria, back when it was huge with lots of games and pool tables. When the first got it, it had a gigantic rubber punch and kick button. Then a week later it got the correct 6 button format. I remember the first time I saw a fireball thrown with the "hot fire" sound effect which was completely by accident. Then we all grinded the hell out of the joysticks foregoing all strategy trying to reproduce it. Then some time later SFII came out and you could instantly tell it was a 500% improvement on the first game. I was in a bowling league at the time and every Saturday I would spend every last quarter of my allowance on that machine. We had all matured a bit since then and no longer grinded the fireball motion constantly with the joysticks and learned that deep jump kicks and foot sweeps was a good way to deal out damage. Few of us were good enough to beat it and if you could get to Balrog or Vega on one credit many arcade kids looked up to you there. I lived with my dad 2 1/2 months every summer of my childhood and he hated video games but would take me to some of the most awesome arcades every now and then in Ohio and Florida when we visited my grandmother and I would get to play SFII Champion Edition, and other SF mods. I remember the first time I played SSFIIT. It seemed crazy fast at the time. I could barely keep up. I remember getting owned by high school kids and adults who could pull off 3, 4, and 5 hit combos while I was still trying to figure out exactly how the Super meter worked. I learned that a deep jumping RH into a crouch SK could be followed up with a free fireball or that Ken's standing Strong could be chained to a dragon punch. And people wanted you to learn and to get better. I miss those days. When everything was new and exciting and people were willing to share and help each other out at the arcades. Before internet message boards, chat rooms, and forums where we were all trying new things and teaching each other what we learned. I think that's why I haven't taught myself to use a controller for SF and other fighters. It's as if I'm holding on to those days for dear life and I'd be letting that kid inside of me that just wanted to learn and get good down by using anything other than what I learned on and what the game was meant to be played on. It's like watching a movie or anime in its original language. Maybe I'm just addicted to that feeling of buttons under my fingertips and my left hand moving the stick around. Whatever it is, I'm not about to let it die.